Spielberg, The Current State of Things

The director I most admire is Steven Spielberg. I think anyone who knows me knows this to be true. Ever since I was a child I've been entranced by the magic of many of his films. Though recently he seems to have hit a bit of a dry spell. Since about the late '90s his work has seemed very uninspired to me, which pains me because I'm such a big fan of his work. But things seem to be changing.

While I'm not terribly excited about Spielberg's remake of the Jimmy Stewart classic Harvey, his upcoming film The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, seems to be a return to classic Spielberg. Tintin is based on a classic French comic book about an adventurous reporter and his dog sidekick. The film is being done in 3-D motion capture, now while I'm usually opposed to such methods, the word is that the film was done in this way in order to fully capture the visual style of the original comics and cartoons. With a terrific cast, ranging from Simon Pegg to Daniel Craig, a script by Hot Fuzz director/screenwriter Edgar Wright, and Peter Jackson producing alongside Spielberg, this could be Spielberg's next great adventure, similar to many of my favorite films from Spielberg.

As if all this isn't enough, word got out the other day that Spielberg is developing Michael Crichton's last novel, Pirate Latitudes (which is due in bookstores in November), into a movie with the possibility of him directing. The story is supposedly a swashbuckling tale of pirates, done in a more authentic way than the Pirates of the Caribbean films. I think this film has some genuine possibilities and could be a genuine hit for Spielberg. Overall this coupled with Tintin makes me feel more optimistic that Spielberg might still have a few more classics left in him. I'm greatly looking forward to both of these films.